Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
-
Great soundtrack, great acting, great story, great style... Great absolutely everything, in an honest, unique, humble-but-nonetheless-astounding fashion.
Soundtrack goes between mellow to epic, maintaining an austere, somewhat sorrowful feel throughout (much like the film).
Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare. C'mon. Acting's just great. Unique, helplessly human characters, full of pent-up rage, desperation, ego, and madness.
Story's (apparently) entirely based on a true tale, apart from character names. Unique, sad, funny in an "oh dear god that went to shit fast" kind of way. It's about a desperately broke car salesman who attempts to make some cash by having his wife kidnapped and then taking most of the ransom from her father. Of course, things don't play out that way, and in a bloody swirl lives fall apart and innocents all around drop like flies, obliterated by revolver rounds. Bad ideas lead nowhere good, basically. Just like Breaking Bad, but without as much badassery and more humanity (or lack thereof, rather).
The thing's listed under Comedy. While the Minnesota accents are inexorably amusing (I'm sorry, it's true) and the dialogue is written in such a way that one finds oneself cracking up constantly, the entire film is thoroughly (excuse my French) fucked up. There's nothing funny about it but irony. You will laugh during this film, and then you will feel horrible about yourself, but deep down, guiltily, you value those laughs more than the moral integrity of not giggling at the downfall and end of numerous lies.
Anyway, watch it. I love this movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116282/
Friday, November 22, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
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Friday, November 15, 2013
Film Review #12: Apollo 18
Paranormal Activity, but in space with a bigger budget, lousier writing, and an overkill attempt at making it look like it's filmed on '60s utility/security cameras... Framerate drops. Discoloration. Pixelation. Resolution switching. Just bad. Really bad. In that sense.
Occasionally (excuse my French) shit got fucked up, and it could take you by surprise (it's a horror movie. Epiphany). The aliens were done pretty well, all things considered, though there's a lot of plotholes, unanswered questions, and inconsistencies which can be bothersome.
Another thing-- most of the time, moon gravity is absent (problematic, given that 99% of the film is based on the Lunar surface). I mean, filming in a plummeting plane ain't easy, so it's acceptable not to go that far, but they should've done SOMETHING. Within the lunar lander, the astronauts are noticeably operating under terrestrial gravity. C'mon. At least some dust floating around, or objects falling just a tad slower than usual... But NO. Not even stiffened clothing to emulate the lack of slagging of cloth that occurs on Earth. C'mon now.
It was still somewhat entertaining, but not even remotely immersive, and literally painful at times to watch, due to all the framerate drops and camera distortion.
It's on Netflix, so hey, if you're looking for a crappy Paranormal Activity-esque movie in space and you can stand having your eyes gouged out with a rusty fork, there ya go.
Occasionally (excuse my French) shit got fucked up, and it could take you by surprise (it's a horror movie. Epiphany). The aliens were done pretty well, all things considered, though there's a lot of plotholes, unanswered questions, and inconsistencies which can be bothersome.
Another thing-- most of the time, moon gravity is absent (problematic, given that 99% of the film is based on the Lunar surface). I mean, filming in a plummeting plane ain't easy, so it's acceptable not to go that far, but they should've done SOMETHING. Within the lunar lander, the astronauts are noticeably operating under terrestrial gravity. C'mon. At least some dust floating around, or objects falling just a tad slower than usual... But NO. Not even stiffened clothing to emulate the lack of slagging of cloth that occurs on Earth. C'mon now.
It was still somewhat entertaining, but not even remotely immersive, and literally painful at times to watch, due to all the framerate drops and camera distortion.
It's on Netflix, so hey, if you're looking for a crappy Paranormal Activity-esque movie in space and you can stand having your eyes gouged out with a rusty fork, there ya go.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Film Review #11: Mission Impossible- Ghost Protocol
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1229238/
This movie just sucks. It's entertaining, though. I'll explain both sides.
It sucks because it's poorly written, all over the place, and very big-budget-y. The story starts and unravels way too fast. I.E., in the beginning, someone got shot by some lady who then proceeded to take the dead dude's briefcase. Then, they were like, OH NO, NUCLEAR LAUNCH CODES HAVE BEEN STOLEN! It ain't bad, but they play it up to be something very different, and thus it's just thrown in your face. The entire thing was easy enough to follow, but there were plenty of holes and one could only kinda put together the storyline at any one time. It was always OH, TOM CRUISE IS GETTING BEAT UP (I'll get to that in a moment). And that's another thing. Tom Cruise's mug was everywhere, mostly because someone (him) thought it would be a good idea to use him as a protagonist. He's just got the kind of actor's face that is so self-righteous and uppity that it fails to be a character so much as an actor off-handedly pretending to be the character... If that makes any sense. You just kinda want to slap him... Which actually works well for the film.
So, why is it entertaining? Plenty of little comedic bits, and it's... well... entertaining. Not brilliant, but lots of action and interesting circumstances. However, the thing that tops it off is the absolute abuse Tom Cruise suffers. Basically, the idea is he's supposed to be a ninja, but that doesn't quite work, so he just falls and hits his head a lot. Honestly, it's probably a stunt double taking the hits, but the idea that Tom Cruise is getting dragged around, clothes-lined by window frames, and blown up is amusing. He also tends to walk around in a tight-fitting hoodie and some odd pair of pants, which are supposed to make him look sly, smooth, and ninja-like in a ramshackle kind of way, but he just looks outlandishly feminine. I'm not sexist; I'm just saying, it's somewhat odd and thus funny in an off-kilter way, if a little creepy in some respects. Silly film makers are trying WAY to hard to make him fancy.
I seem to have a disposition against Mr. Cruise at this moment. Anyway, don't watch it, unless you enjoy watching Tom Cruise get thrown around.
This movie just sucks. It's entertaining, though. I'll explain both sides.
It sucks because it's poorly written, all over the place, and very big-budget-y. The story starts and unravels way too fast. I.E., in the beginning, someone got shot by some lady who then proceeded to take the dead dude's briefcase. Then, they were like, OH NO, NUCLEAR LAUNCH CODES HAVE BEEN STOLEN! It ain't bad, but they play it up to be something very different, and thus it's just thrown in your face. The entire thing was easy enough to follow, but there were plenty of holes and one could only kinda put together the storyline at any one time. It was always OH, TOM CRUISE IS GETTING BEAT UP (I'll get to that in a moment). And that's another thing. Tom Cruise's mug was everywhere, mostly because someone (him) thought it would be a good idea to use him as a protagonist. He's just got the kind of actor's face that is so self-righteous and uppity that it fails to be a character so much as an actor off-handedly pretending to be the character... If that makes any sense. You just kinda want to slap him... Which actually works well for the film.
So, why is it entertaining? Plenty of little comedic bits, and it's... well... entertaining. Not brilliant, but lots of action and interesting circumstances. However, the thing that tops it off is the absolute abuse Tom Cruise suffers. Basically, the idea is he's supposed to be a ninja, but that doesn't quite work, so he just falls and hits his head a lot. Honestly, it's probably a stunt double taking the hits, but the idea that Tom Cruise is getting dragged around, clothes-lined by window frames, and blown up is amusing. He also tends to walk around in a tight-fitting hoodie and some odd pair of pants, which are supposed to make him look sly, smooth, and ninja-like in a ramshackle kind of way, but he just looks outlandishly feminine. I'm not sexist; I'm just saying, it's somewhat odd and thus funny in an off-kilter way, if a little creepy in some respects. Silly film makers are trying WAY to hard to make him fancy.
I seem to have a disposition against Mr. Cruise at this moment. Anyway, don't watch it, unless you enjoy watching Tom Cruise get thrown around.
Friday, November 1, 2013
Film Review #10: Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (web series)
http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/
So, basically, this is a little show where Seinfeld chooses a comedian, arranges to get coffee with them, selects a car he finds fitting to said comedian, and then, well, goes and gets coffee with them in the car. They just have conversations, and a cam crew films it. Supposedly, it's not set up, but that's (at least in part) bullshit because at one point Seinfeld decided he'd take a detour onto another road to swing by some place for sightseeing or something, and they had a camera on the corner to show them turning the corner, armed by a cameraman. I'm still willing to believe the conversations are improvised, however. All around, it's mellow, laid back, entertaining, and pleasantly funny (yeh, it better be). All together entertaining. A good look at people in the business when they ain't workin' (other than Seinfeld) and aren't busy attacking the paparazzi trying to get the very shots we're looking at. Swing by, take a look. It can get almost a tad droll at times, but only if you're impatient like me and no outlandishly brilliant line has hit your ears in the last six-and-a-half seconds.
So, basically, this is a little show where Seinfeld chooses a comedian, arranges to get coffee with them, selects a car he finds fitting to said comedian, and then, well, goes and gets coffee with them in the car. They just have conversations, and a cam crew films it. Supposedly, it's not set up, but that's (at least in part) bullshit because at one point Seinfeld decided he'd take a detour onto another road to swing by some place for sightseeing or something, and they had a camera on the corner to show them turning the corner, armed by a cameraman. I'm still willing to believe the conversations are improvised, however. All around, it's mellow, laid back, entertaining, and pleasantly funny (yeh, it better be). All together entertaining. A good look at people in the business when they ain't workin' (other than Seinfeld) and aren't busy attacking the paparazzi trying to get the very shots we're looking at. Swing by, take a look. It can get almost a tad droll at times, but only if you're impatient like me and no outlandishly brilliant line has hit your ears in the last six-and-a-half seconds.
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